Body & Mind Traits - AoW4 (MP) Basics

[@wepg]

This video is now effectively obsoleted by the changes to Form Traits introduced in the Golem Patch. Bright side? NEW BIDEO- kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpCmemSkqJJ9hNU

[@jaredrichardson78]

I hate how right you are. I used to think "why would anyone pick mounts?" And then I picked a mount and I cant pick anything other than mounts! Adaptable I never even considered, but I can totally see it

[@wepg]

Adaptable is gonna get an enormous nerf in the upcoming patch, and the new point system definitely deserves a tier list. Stay tuned!

[@jaredrichardson78]

@@wepg I haven't been paying attention, I know nothing about this point system!

[@wepg]

@@jaredrichardson78 Mind and Body traits are disappearing and instead you just get 5 points to play around with. It looks *really* good.

[@jaredrichardson78]

@@wepg interesting!! I am looking forward to it!!

[@-Kidzin]

Browsing through your vids ngl I am pretty happy about myself for figuring out Industrials as the way to go (though I picked them for flavour first) together with mounted bastions (i went for wolves iirc for pack tactics, and with various cav/animal buffs bastions were one tapping everything while not taking any damage) in first days of the game release. Together with notorious tome choices it sure made multiplayer games a breeze. It's getting close to half a year since I played last time so maybe it's time to come back with the new DLC releases and such. I have a single video of AoW4 from 7 months ago from a "final battle" that showcases it pretty well if you were curious :D

[@wepg]

I think Industrious remains one of the strongest choices on the current patch, though Bastions have been nerfed a small amount. I think you could make a good faith argument that either Industrious, High or Barbarians are the "best" culture at the moment.

[@-Kidzin]

@@wepg What do you think about reavers? I'd probably try them out first and see how far they can be pushed, considering the theme with some ranged build

[@hun9270]

Thanks for making this incredibly insightful video series!

[@wepg]

Society traits will be out tomorrow! I'm also going to be streaming the MP game with WinSlaya and the crew, though we are going to be an hour late because Eileen and I are having lunch with one of her coworkers. Society traits is going to be hideously long, fair warning, and I think the best way to approach it will be to watch a few traits at a time. Watch the sections on the traits you think you are excited to try or don't understand. Or I guess watch the whole thing and make both me and the algorithm deeply concerned (okay it's only and hour and 15 minutes but still).

[@R17inator]

So the newest official stream for empires n ashes and the golem update just added some juicy new info for changes on the form traits: -We will be getting point-buy system with 5 trait points (no negative traits to increase points) instead of current body and mind slot. -Adaptable will be getting nerfed hard, XP gain down to 20%, but most importantly, it will be changed to only affect non-heroes. -Terrain Adaptation traits cost 1 point each and non-Underground ones will give a matching terraform spell. Mount traits all cost 3 points each. -Resilient and resolute merged, but costing 3 points and the +3 status res got reduced to +2. -Bad, bad news: Bulwark costs 2 points, so Industrious will be able to have BOTH Bulwark and a mount trait.

[@wepg]

That is disgusting (and awesome). I will 100% redo this list when the patch drops.

[@JohnnyTightIips]

​@@wepgfor industrious, which mount option would you recommend to pair with bulwark for the 5pts?

[@wepg]

@@JohnnyTightIips I think Industrious is strong enough right now that it's very much choose your own adventure- I think, broadly, Nightmares and Dire Bears are marginally better for Bastions, but Spiders are noticeably better for the first 15-20 turns or so. Unicorns are still pretty solid for Barbarians, but without a stun Bastions don't get nearly as much out of the phase.

[@JohnnyTightIips]

Thank you

[@iTzTiMeToJuMp]

These videos are awesome and you singlehandedly got me interested in the game again. Will you be doing videos on society traits and cultures as well?

[@wepg]

Yup! I think I'm gonna do those as tier lists both because I do like the tier list method and I think it's more appropriate as there are use cases for each of them. Society Traits I'm hoping to have out by tomorrow; cultures might take a little longer due to the difficulty of navigating the encyclopedia and my reticence to make a bunch of different builds and play them for 15 turns to show what they can accomplish, but they are 100% an important part of any build and any game of MP AoW4.

[@iTzTiMeToJuMp]

@@wepg awesome! Looking forward to it. Between culture, traits, society traits and starting tome: what do you think has the biggest impacts on the first few turns?

[@wepg]

@@iTzTiMeToJuMp I think it depends; there are some traits that dramatically reduce your chances of winning in MP (like, virtually zero chance), whereas I don't think there are any tomes that you literally can't win with (though some are a *lot* better than others). I do think if you want to *maximize* your chance of winning you probably want to make sure your build can accomplish a few things very quickly, like getting Military Engineering online ASAP, but given that you can get 2-3 Materium affinity in a variety of different ways (including getting an early level 4 ruler with a Materium affinity signature skill), you don't have to dramatically warp your build to get to the good stuff ASAP.

[@wepg]

I think the cleanest solution for the ubiquity of mounted traits isn't necessarily to nerf them but, rather, to create more realistic counters for them. At the moment, the only real polearm options we have are the T2 polearms (which are *good* but T2 units scale very poorly and stop being useful by like T30-35 or so) and Gold Golems (and, of course, the rare Hero with a high tier polearm weapon, but good luck getting those reliably). Paradox/Triumph, please, think of the children. Give us a few T3 or T4 non-large model polearm units. I promise I will use them whether they are good or not as I am on record saying I like spears. Spears are cool. Halberds are cool. Black Panther is cool because spears and soundtrack and Michael B. Jordan, and while you probably can't get him you do already have a great soundtrack, so now you just need spears to be two-thirds the way there. Also nerf Adaptable.

[@TheIlluvatar619]

do you think a PVP mod should be created? -change AMPLIFY MINDS to work like FANATICAL WORKFORCE=> have to recast every 3turn -set a heroes lvl cap to be determined (i think about lvl 6, srry dragon rulers...) or number (like 4 total) -add a T3 spear into tome of the beacon (a new civ would be nice too, but is a lot of work)

[@R17inator]

Polearms would be good against mounted melee but I think large numbers of ranged and battle mage cavalry (especially battle mage with splash such as Awakeners and Spellbreakers) would still be able to do a number on them as they try to close in.

[@R17inator]

@@TheIlluvatar619 Someone did try to make a rebalance mod ("Competitive PBEM" on the steam workshop) on the aow4 multiplayer discord but they seem to have either given up or are waiting a long time for the last expansion.

[@wepg]

@@R17inator Yeah, *unless* they had a Wind Barrier effect. A Djinn Polearm with a 60% evasion to missiles would be hella rad.

[@wepg]

@@TheIlluvatar619 Amplified Minds being recast would be a huge (and very deserved) nerf and would.play way better, though I have also heard rumors that Tome of Amplification might be moved to T3 which would massively slow down the speed of teching in a good way. I think a PvP mod could be good but I'd like to see vanilla get a little better balanced (or the game clearly not getting that) before saying a balance mod is the solution.

[@TheIlluvatar619]

Hello, if a hero lvl cap mod existed, would you and your friends using it?

[@wepg]

Depends on the nature of the mod. I do think that heroes *should* feel powerful, I just think that they are currently slightly overtuned. I could ask the group tomorrow though! If you are looking into modding btw, Badok has made a bunch of great mods for AoW4 so far and might have a few pointers.

[@TheIlluvatar619]

@@wepg nice! maybe he already done one xD